SCREENSHOTS, SCANNING, AND FILE NAMING

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ABSTRACT: This class will discuss making screenshots or screen captures, scanning documents,
and ways to name the files for ease of use later. Free and inexpensive computer programs
that help will be shown. A naming system for the files will be presented that makes them
easy to find and shows them in chronological order for the person they relate to. We will
not discuss photo and slide scanning here, but save that for another discussion. The notes
for this class and related articles, all with active Internet links, are on my website
http://uvtagg.org/classes/dons/dons-classes.html .

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The problem for today's discussion: Doing screenshots, scanning
documents, and naming the files for ease of
use later.

SCREENSHOTS

Screenshots or screen captures are pictures
you make of things on your computer screen; they
can be of documents, webpages, photos, text,
etc.

Screenshots can be saved as files or to your computer clipboard to paste elsewhere

Examples of screenshots to save -- family
history information, family history webpages, photos, online
orders you make, online receipts for purchases,
forms you fill out

Not necessary to save everything in hard copy;
save it in electronic form and print it only
when you need a printed copy

Screenshots can be of part or all of
the screen or of entire vertical scrolling window

Files can be saved in various formats, e.g.
pdf, jpg, tif, or png, depending on what you want to do with them, and you can convert from one format to another later

HOW TO MAKE SCREENSHOTS

Many free screenshot tools available; some are built into Windows 10

Windows 10

Print to PDF -- Can set this as your default printer so anytime you right-click > Print something
it will be automatically be set to save it as pdf and not print it to paper; will ask you what to name
it and where to put the pdf file; I print most things to pdf and then from that to paper, if needed

Print Screen key -- PrntScrn -- saves entire
desktop to clipboard for pasting into another program like WordPad or LibreOffice

Snipping Tool -- click Start
(the slanted "Window" icon in lower left corner) > Programs >
Windows Accessories > Snipping Tool -- allows you to select rectangular area, full-screen, or
free-form area where you trace around the area to snip; will save as file or to clipboard and
can edit or highlight parts; can create an icon on your desktop for Snipping Tool by Window > Programs
> Windows Accessories > highlight Snipping Tool and right-click-drag to Desktop > click Create Shortcut

FASTSTONE CAPTURE -- excellent screen capture
program with many features -- old free version
is 5.3, later versions are better, but are Shareware and hence not
free

Portable version also available that can be run from a flash drive to use anywhere, e.g. at a Family History Center

Besides standard shape screenshots, it will capture entire scrolling window, a feature I use often

Captures can be saved in various formats
such as pdf, jpg, png, tif, and gif; can add captions and has an editor

Has a print option to print to paper directly -- helpful when the print
method on the website doesn't work well, e.g.
on censuses

Screenshot files are NOT text searchable since they are only pictures of the page; for pdf screenshots the free
PDF-XCHANGE EDITOR -- http://www.tracker-software.com/product/downloads/
-- has OCR (Optical
Character Recognition) to make them text searchable

SCANNING DOCUMENTS

To scan most documents I use the Lexmark
scanners at Family History Centers and scan
things directly to a flash drive

Lexmarks have flatbed and sheet-feeder
trays and can be set to scan both sides of
documents at once

The scanner names the files in sequence,
e.g. Scanned-image-1.pdf,
Scanned-image-2.pdf, etc. -- can rename these at home later

FHC Kodak Photo Scanners will also scan documents, both sides of
letter or legal size sheets, but not to pdf

EVERNOTE has a free "document app" that will photograph and square up the rectangular area; can be used as a portable scanner, e.g. to scan forms you fill out at the doctor's office

FILE NAMING FOR SCREENSHOTS, DOCUMENTS,
AND PORTRAITS

Goal in file naming is so you, or anyone, can find what you are looking and tell what's in them without having to open them

Several ways to rename files

FILE EXPLORER in Windows 10 (same as Windows Explorer in Windows 7) has a Preview Pane to see what's in the file without opening it -- click View > Preview Pane -- can then rename the file without opening it

Freeware program EVERYTHING -- available
from http://www.voidtools.com/ -- will find all files on your computer for whatever characters are in the titles; can rename files in it; now has a Preview Pane -- Click View > Preview

Using the woman's maiden name is
standard in genealogy and brings all files
pertaining to her together, before and after marriage; married name in parentheses helps identify her

Birth and death years makes time period clear and distinguishes
people with same name, so no need for Jr.
or Sr., unless that really was part of their
name

Event dates after the name are in
International Date Format YYYY-MM-DD so
the files automatically sort
chronologically as a timeline for the person -- putting the
event date anywhere else in the title
would not have the person's files sort chronologically

For event keywords I use words like
BIRTH, MARRIAGE, DEATH, NEWS, LDS, MISSION, DOC, SCHOOL, EDUCATION, PORTRAIT, CENSUS, LETTER, MEDICAL, MILITARY, TALK, AUDIO, etc. -- can use as many as you want; EVERYTHING will then collect together all files for the person or only those with keywords you put in search box and will show those chronologically, e.g. searching for person and MILITARY you get all their military records together and in chronological order

If file pertains to entire life of the
person, I use keywords like HISTORY, PEDIGREE, BIO, or GENEALOGY before
the date, so these all sort together after
the event-dated files

I don't leave spaces in file names since
some programs add characters in
empty spaces, such as a % sign, and it makes them harder to read

Files named this way makes them jump
right to where they belong in the
EVERYTHING list without you having to put them there, even if not in same folder

EVERYTHING can be used to move all
related files into a single folder and then they sort chronologically without EVERYTHING

Portraits I name this way, but for other photos I use a different
system, since there are so many

For some other types of files I use a code at
the start, e.g. LTR- for a letter, PHT- for
a photo, ORD- for an order, V- for
videos, S- for Powerpoints or slideshows, etc., so I can find them easily

USING EVERYTHING TO SHOW ITEMS IN TIMELINE
ORDER FOR AN INDIVIDUAL

Searching with EVERYTHING finds all files, no matter where they are on your computer

Double click to open -- can open
as many copies as you want, e.g. you could
have one for a person's timeline and
another for the photos of that person

For a timeline enter person's name as
above -- result will be a chronological
timeline of the person's life because International Date Format makes them
sort chronologically

List is
interactive and you can click on any
file to open it to read it or listen to audio, etc.

For particular types of items
for a person such as EDUCATION, NEWS, or MILITARY, add that term in search box;
result is chronological list of just those
items -- very helpful for information
about particular types of events

Can do screenshots or text files of such
directory lists to save a timeline of that
person or event list for them

If you see misspellings in the
EVERYTHING results list, rename
the files right there and they jump to where
they belong in the list

When you see how the system works, you
can modify parts or all of it to suit
yourself.

As mentioned above files named this way
and placed in a separate folder will sort
chronologically without using EVERYTHING

To move files to another folder highlight them in
EVERYTHING and right-click and drag them to
the folder; they will
still be listed in EVERYTHING, but their
paths will all be changed; if you copy,
rather than move them, they will all appear
duplicated in the EVERYTHING results list

No limit to the number of files you can
handle this way and they automatically jump
to where they belong, as soon as you name
them

I
use this system on all new files and I
rename old files as I find them, but I only do old files as I need or come across them, since it's too big a task to go back and do all old files

Can use EVERYTHING to copy the files to
flash drives or burn CDs and form interactive timelines with
all the documents to give to others

CONCLUSION

Good organization on your computer takes
time, but saves you time later. But don't try to do it all at once. Remember: "Small deeds done are better than big deeds planned."

Storing information electronically about yourself makes it easier to find and will help your descendants know about you; storing information electronically about your ancestors turns your heart to them.